"We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We must be knit together in this work as one man." — John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," 1630
Winthrop's vision most directly reflects which broader development in early seventeenth-century New England?
- A
The negotiation of proprietary land grants from the Crown to Catholic nobles
- B
The chartering of joint-stock ventures focused on extracting cash crops
- C
The expansion of headright systems to attract indentured servants
- Dcheck_circle
The establishment of Puritan covenant communities seeking to model godly society
Explanation
Winthrop's sermon reflects the Puritan project of building a covenanted godly community in Massachusetts Bay. Cash-crop joint-stock ventures (Virginia Company), headright systems (Chesapeake), and proprietary Catholic grants (Maryland under the Calverts) were all real but distinct colonial models that did not animate Winthrop's "city upon a hill."